Celebrate Poe

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This podcast episode deals with President Kennedy’s 1960 Inaugural address.  On January 20, 1961, John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK), a Democrat from Massachusetts, was inaugurated as the 35th president of the United States. Taking office at the age of 43, he remains the youngest person in the history of the United States to be elected to that role.  

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Welcome to Celebrate Poe - this is episode 278 - Whitman on Democracy - and This is the final episode - for now - about Walt Whitman.

Walt Whitman wrote many lengthy poems about democracy - in fact I found a great poem about Democracy that would take almost two hours to read — but I am going to try and confine the poems in this episode to some of those on the shorter side - starting with the three-line poem - To Foreign Lands.  Here he simply states that he heard other countries want to know what the New World was and what America was, so he is giving them his poetry so they can find out exactly what his country is.

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It is generally agreed that O Captain, My Captain is Walt Whitman’s masterpiece.  But to understand this poem you need to look at the connections between Abraham Lincoln, Walt Whitman, and Whitman’s love, Peter Doyle.

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Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 276 - Beat! Beat! Drums!

After three episodes on President Abraham Lincoln, I would like to delve into arguably America’s greatest poet - a man whose entire outlook on life was intertwined with this positive views of and strong belief in democracy - Walt Whitman.  Art historian Mary Berenson wrote, "You cannot really understand America without Walt Whitman, without his classic Leaves of Grass... He has expressed that civilization, 'up to date,' as he would say, and no student of the philosophy of history can do without him."

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On the fourth day of March, 1865, the President of the United States stood on the east steps of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. to deliver his second inaugural address. Now Four years earlier, Abraham Lincoln delivered his first inaugural address as disaster loomed. The divided nation had that sent him to the White House after the divided election of 1860 was slowly but surely headed to war against itself. Now, four years and approximately 600,000 casualties later, Abraham Lincoln was taking the oath of office again. 

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Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 274 - A Two-Minute Masterpiece: The Gettysburg Address Explained

This episode delves briefly into Edward Everett's two hour speech at Gettysburg prior to President Lincoln's two minute address, and breaks down Lincoln's words and concepts in his address.

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Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 273 - The Better Angels of Our Nature

For the next three episodes, I would like to delve into three speeches by Abraham Lincoln - not only because of their excellence but because of how conditions in Lincoln’s time can be compared to many political challenges of today.

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Welcome to Celebrate Poe - this is episode 272  where I look at Frederick Douglass, and yes, a little about Edgar Allan Poe. Now while Poe and Douglass came from vastly different backgrounds with fascinating writing styles, they both share a mastery of suspense in their respective works. In this episode, I want to concentrate on Douglass’s ideas and writing style in addition to some comments about Poe, ending with Douglass’s masterful “The Hypocrisy of American Slavery.”

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Welcome to Celebrate Poe - My name is George Bartley, and this is episode 270 - Life, Liberty, and Happiness.

The United States Declaration of Independence is an extremely important document in the history of the United States of America, and was ratified on July 4, 1776. It says that the Americans were no longer under British rule. Instead, the thirteen British colonies came together to become a union of free and independent states.

You see, before 1776, the United States of America was not a country. The individual states were colonies of the British Empire.  And during this time, many American people were angry at Great Britain. Many Americans did not like paying taxes to Great Britain when they did not have anyone to speak for them in Parliament. The American people wanted to be treated like British citizens.

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Welcome to Celebrate Poe - My name is George Bartley - and this is episode 269 - Give Me Liberty.

Presidential elections in the United States only occur once every four years, and it could be argued that 2024 is the most important Presidential election of our lives.  So after a great deal of thought and research, I decided to take a break from producing episodes about Poe, and take a deep dive into some of the important political documents that defined this country - now early voting begins in Pennsylvania on September 16, 2024, and I want to deal with some of the works that define us as a nation.  Some of the episodes even touch on Edgar Allan Poe - tho he is far from the main topic - except for the last episodes where this podcast looks at one of Poe’s most famous stories - The Pit and the Pendulum - from a contemporary fascist interpretation.

Now, according to my stats, Celebrate Poe has had downloads in almost 90 countries, with 2/3 of those downloads coming from the United States.  Of course, other countries are certainly affected by the results of our Presidential election - for good or ill - and I would like to spend the next few weeks looking into some of the great documents, speeches, and literary works that led to the passage of laws and acceptance of attitudes that make the United States such a great country.

I plan to delve into some of the important documents that define who we are as a people, as well as our rights and responsibilities - such as The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Gettysburg Address - right up to some recordings of and comments of present day political figures.